Quebec must increase funding for housing construction and come to the aid of public transport hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, says the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM). In anticipation of the tabling of the Legault government’s budget expected in March, the CMM is asking Quebec City in particular to rebalance the funding of the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM).
The brief submitted Monday by the CMM, which brings together 82 cities in the greater Montreal area, as part of the pre-budget consultations, reports on the glaring lack of social and affordable housing at a time when 30,000 households are still waiting to have access to a place in low rent housing. It also pays a great deal of attention to the concerns of cities with regard to public transport. Mayor Valérie Plante, who chairs the CMM, evokes the need for “strong measures to contribute to the green and inclusive recovery of the metropolitan region of Montreal, which includes 50% of the population, jobs and GDP of Quebec”.
In particular, the CMM is asking Quebec to grant an additional $350 million to allow the rapid delivery of some 2,500 AccèsLogis units already planned before 2019 on the territory of the Montreal agglomeration. She also wants Quebec to provide funding for the construction of at least 3,000 social housing units per year for 10 years. It also asks that the government financially support organizations such as housing offices, cooperatives and housing NPOs so that 9,000 additional properties or affordable housing units are made available each year, also over 10 years. An amount of one billion dollars would also be required for the rehabilitation of the 14,000 HLM barricaded or in poor condition throughout the greater Montreal area.
Public transport in crisis
If Quebec really wants to decongest the greater Montreal area, it must come to the aid of transport organizations, whether it is the ARTM, created nearly five years ago to manage the development of transport in the region, or transit companies such as the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), the Société de transport de Laval (STL) and the Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) which have seen their ridership plummet with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Quebec has already granted significant sums to help the ARTM, but more will be needed to get it out of the crisis, argues the CMM. It is thus claiming compensation of $275.4 million for the ARTM to make up for the shortfall attributable to the postponement, by the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), of the collection of the registration tax between the July 1, 2020 and December 31, 2022. “The government must ensure that the SAAQ is able to collect, as agreed, as of January 2023, the vehicle registration tax”, underlines the CMM in its brief.
The provincial government must also grant additional aid to the ARTM, because the 100 million granted last fall are insufficient to make up for the shortfall which could reach 214 million in 2022, recalls the CMM. The cities also want the government to bring forward to 2023 its timetable for diversifying the sources of funding for public transport, whose revenue is essentially based on user fees and contributions from municipalities and the government. The project set up in 2019 for this purpose had also identified several measures in place elsewhere in Canada or abroad, such as the implementation of kilometer pricing, tolls or tariffs related to possession or use of electric vehicles or bicycles, recalls the CMM.
The government must be concerned about the costs generated by urban sprawl for the municipalities of the CMM in connection with the establishment and maintenance of the road network and public transit infrastructure, underlines the brief. The CMM thus evokes an amount of 4.9 million which should be paid to the ARTM to compensate for these additional costs.
The CMM’s brief also addresses the issues of protecting natural environments and the cities of the greater Montreal region are asking for $100 million over five years for the creation of a network of metropolitan parks with the acquisition of natural environments.